Thursday 27 August 2015

☁ Yilan 宜蘭一日游(I)- Mr. Brown Cafe & Yilan

On a sunny morning, Yanxi & I took on a day trip to Yilan 宜蘭!

→ Jiaosi Station 礁溪火車站
Directions: Take Zhongshan Underpass Exit Y1 or R1 from Taipei Main Station. Purchase Kemalan bus 葛瑪蘭客運 tickets at Gate 13 (4F) of Taipei Bus Station 台北轉運站. Take bus from Gate 13/14 (4F) and alight at Jiaosi Station 礁溪火車站. Alternatively, there are also buses directly to Yilan 宜蘭 or Luodong 羅東 where tourists usually alight.



We alighted the bus at Jiaoxi station because the first spot we were visiting was nearest to Wai'ao Station so from there,  we took the railway train to Wai’ao Station. Free & Easy travellers like us, DO NOT take this route. What happened was when we arrived at Wai'ao Station, we felt like we were stranded on a desserted island. There were practically nothing around but an empty road with occasional cars driving by. We tried to flag down a cab to take us to our destination (as planned) but cabs in Yilan DO NOT cruise around for passengers. In Yilan, you have to call for a cab everytime you need one.

So thankfully this nice lady spotted us and helped us with calling a cab. NT300 for a 10 minutes ride - pretty steep for a cab ride in Taiwan but Yilan is a touristy place so it was basically the "market" rate.






→ Mr. Brown Cafe頭城城堡咖啡一館
地址   宜蘭縣頭城鎮外澳里8鄰石空路95號 || 電話03-969-9226

It was an adventurous long morning before finally reaching our breakfast place! Then again, the hassle to travel all the way there was so worth it because the view was absolutely beautiful when we were up the mountain. Coffee at Mr Brown is really good but there isn't a wide variety of food choices available, so its just some sandwiches and tarts. 

How do you get down to the nearest train station from here? Get the cafe staffs to call you a cab.





→Yilan Station 宜蘭車站 / 丟丟噹森林 

Some 1 minute away from Yilan Station is a famous 星空飛天火車 architecture piece. A little walk down further the street should find a park with many other centerpieces by illustrator, Jimmy Liao.  We didn't walk down that direction and I think I wasn't really in a mood for appreciating the artpieces because exploring during Taiwan's summer season IS extremely gruelling. It was just half a day out and I was already drained out by the heat and profuse sweat.

We also didn't manage proper meals because there wasn't eateries in sight so we just went ahead with our schedule to visit farms WITHOUT LUNCH.  In other news, I'd be working on Yilan's second installment when I'm done filtering through the pictures on the cute farms we visited! Till then~




love, bella

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